Tuesday morning I ran through the blog entries in my Mojo account. Since September I have written film reviews and covered events for them such as the Louisville International Festival of Films, Dark River Film Fest, Derby City Film Festival, etc. Over the past few months events in my life have caused article submissions to wane and the man is right when he says, “Hindsight is 20/20.” You're never more clear than when you look backward.
I sent my invoices to the account manager at Mojo and sometime later in the day received a note saying that I would receive my payments and that due to restructuring of the website my freelance contract has ended. It's enough to take the bounce out of anyone's bungee.
I'm not angry or pissed-off; I consider myself lucky that I was given the opportunity. Before September of last year I was the last person I thought would be a journalist. I was just a guy who knew a shitload about film; enough to write coherently on it. The sheer fact that someone liked my work enough to hire me and pay me (pittance, yes) for it was a mini-dream come true. I remember meeting the founder, Chuck, who told me, “Thank you. You make us look good.” He shook my hand and for once I had validation for some kind of effort I had been giving. Incidentally I also had that “I'm the nerd in the room” feeling...
My best experience working for them was doing the LIFF. I took the Friday off from work and had a Press Pass that allowed me to go any and every where that I wanted to go, something I likened to “God Mode” in “Wolfenstein 3-D.” I brought along my laptop and digital camera and after an event (movie, seminar) I would write about it and upload it to my blog. I was going 900mph and running between constantly providing content and being a part of it all. By Sunday I damn near crashed but I honestly have never had so much fun and I enjoyed doing work like it.
By March I should have called out the instigator because something was in the air... I was wrapped up in a breakup but had noticed things being slightly amiss; something was going wrong at the Mojo Ranch. I gathered from various sources that money was becoming an issue. By April it was announced that Mojo would be killing their news department but they asked me to stay on and keep doing what I had been doing; no changes to my contract. There were two others sticking around as well...
At some point in May I stopped and noticed that I was the last one blogging. I didn't make a big deal out of it but the site had changed to be primarily about dating and being a “local” thing so I just kept plugging along. Eventually it got to be the beginning of June, I sent in my invoices and got a response back. The last bit of sandcastle, the last of what I had built up for myself here, was washed away in all directions.
And what am I going to do about it?
I'm taking some time off to re-evaluate some things in my life. Reorganize. Restructure. I'm laying low until I come back from Chicago. Will let you know what I come up with.
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